Alter Ego

Andy is a disorganised muso who suffers terrible back pain and he has trouble doing live gigs. Taking on a new and evolving identity in Second Life he sets about forming a band with international musicians and get his music out all over the world.

His journey into Second Life brings him into contact with other denizens of this strange virtual world.

He meets Wolfie Rankin, a suave 8-foot wolf who takes him to a wild party in the forest where he encounters an extraordinary crowd of cavorting ‘Furries’.

Wolfie always felt an affinity with wolves. He knew he was unusual. It wasn’t until he started using the Internet, that he realized there were other like-minded people.  He discovered there were Furry communities all over the world.  He had found his ‘pack’.

Looking to upgrade his avatar with a tattoo, Andy meets Angela.  Angela has created a haven in Second Life away from the chaos in her real life where she can create an ideal of herself and her family.

As she flips through a virtual photo album she recounts happy memories of her virtual wedding, honeymoon and birthing of virtual twin babies.  She has a virtual daughter Fae, a cute six-year-old girl. In real life she’s 42-years-old and lives in Northern California.  Second Life has been a way for her to relive her childhood to heal deep wounds caused by sexual abuse as a child. Unfortunately, Angela’s obsession with Second Life and constant nurturing of her virtual children has meant neglect of her real life children.

Angela’s mother Dee is a grandma to her virtual children as well as finding time to be a supermodel.

Not able to find anyone to join his band, Andy asks his cousin Pearly to team up with him. From their bedrooms in different parts of the Australia they perform together as though they were in the same room. The appreciative audience of odd characters comes to see them from all over the world.

Alter Ego weaves in and out of both the real and virtual lives of the characters we meet, the bizarre of Second Life and the human desire that fuels it.  Do they predict a post human era when, as one of our characters surmises we may just be able to "slip into the machine forever"?